“Walk forward.” Luc’s warm breath whispered over her skin. His lips grazed the shell of her ear.
“Um…” Lila began to protest, but found she had nothing to say. Words had deserted her.
In lieu of them, she took a step. One small step, then a slightly larger one. Luc pressed his warm hands to her face, and his embroidered cloak shifted to drape both of their shoulders. They moved toward the Void, one tentative unit. Step by step.
As they crept closer and closer to the platform’s edge—surely, they were nearing it—fears shot up her spine like vines climbing a trellis. What if Luc didn’t tell her to stop in time? Or what if he did, but she didn’t react fast enough? Or what if she tripped andfell?
Lila had wanted to leap into the Void before, of course, but falling into it on accident didn’t suit her at all. If she was going, she would be going on her own terms.
Just as she was about to stop of her own accord, Luc wound his arm around her waist and pressed his mouth to her ear.
“Stop,” he murmured.
Lila opened her eyes and gasped. On reflex, she sunkinto Luc’s body, and his hand flexed at her waist. One more step, and she would have been on the rim of the platform. Two more steps, and she would have been lost.
“I wouldn’t have let you fall.” Luc’s words fell tenderly on her ear, as delicate as the hair she’d been running through her fingers. Instinctively, she tipped her head up and met his eyes. Keen and focused, they shot through to her borrowed soul. His lips were half-parted. She didn’t breathe.
He was so beautiful up close, especially now with stubble lining his jaw and faint circles under his eyes from lost sleep. Some angels would consider those imperfections, but she thought a little roughness gave him more depth, like shading in a painting. She wanted to kiss his jaw and feel the stubble scrape her lips. She wanted to run her tongue over it, along his jaw and under his chin. Then she wanted to dip lower and lap at his throat.
“But you knew that.” Luc spoke, and Lila blinked. She stumbled back into her body.
“Or you wouldn’t have let me lead you out here.” He guided her back a few steps. When he let go of her, she turned her body toward him, half-dazed.
Luc stuck his hands in his pockets, and his lofty smirk returned, as if he knew what she’d been thinking. Her face burned.
“See?” he teased. “Sometimes, you just know things.”
Present Aeon
Eva wasn’t speaking.
Lila had witnessed her in many stages of shock before, but speechless was new. To be honest, it scared her. Eva wasn’t one to hold back her thoughts, but she just stared at Lila like she’d gone to sleep with her eyes open.
Then Lila heard it. The tiniest laugh cracked her throat open, followed by a torrent of mirth. Eva bent double, pounding her fist on the rock, and kicked her feet. Laughter shook her whole body, from her head to her toes. She swayed like she did only when exceedingly drunk, turning redder by the Earth second.
“Sweet aether,” she choked out. “Sweet aether, sweet aether.”
“Oh, is that all you can say?” Lila swatted at her.
“Am I the only one who knows?” She jumped up, eyes bright with excitement.
Lila nodded reluctantly.
“Ahhhhh!!!” Eva stamped her feet and flailed her fists. Before she drew every Earth creature in the vicinity to their location, Lila clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Shhhh!”
“Mmmmm!” Eva tore Lila’s hand away from her mouth. “I adore you, Lila! You’re an inspiration to angels everywhere. I mean, look at you. You’reso calm and collected after pulling off the greatest scandal in all of existence.” Eva grinned the way she did only when she’d heard some extremely juicy gossip.
“Eva, you’re not going to tell anyone. You promised, remember?” Lila gave her a stern, but not unkind, look.
“Oh, yes!” She nodded, then shook her head. “I mean, no. No. No one will know. No one butmeeee!” Eva squealed through the last word, rubbing her hands together and clapping. She was practically running in place. Telling her had been a mistake. Lila already felt it.
“This is the best thing I’ve heard this entire aeon!” Eva continued. “Lila, I didn’t know you had it in you!”
“Yes, yes, I know. I’m serious and boring. I got that from the past two aeons.”
“ButLuc?!” Eva’s mouth gaped open. Her eyes were wide as serving platters as she craned her face too close to Lila’s. “How could you not tell me before?!” She smacked Lila’s arm. “And also…how could you not tell me?!”
